credentials, population and education

So after some research, some thought and a weeks reflection I believe I have come up with the data set I need to begin my discussion about where, I believe, the focus of badges should be. The data I require comes from the follow three sources;

1. tertiary education levels - I want to know the education levels being achieved / persued throughout the world.
2. global population - I want to determine the approximate number of people being educated beyond a grade 10 level.
3. credentialing - how saturated with credentialing the different segments from the above two data sources have become.

I believe that the current set of digital badges projects (open or otherwise) are focused on populations that already have adequate credentialing systems. And for digital badging to be successful they may want to focus on the areas where little or no credentialing currently exists, yet also have access to the internet. More on this to come... stay tuned.